What Happened

As best as we can put together, here’s how the Mike Nolan-Alex Smith relationship deteriorated. Smith was initially told by doctors that two ligaments in his shoulder tore after he was hit by Seattle defensive tackle Rocky Bernard on Sept. 30, and that the injury would take four to six weeks to heal.

By the fourth week, Smith was cleared to play, and so he did against the Saints but he was hurting. After each pass and hit, he dangled his arm as if it were dead weight. In the 31-10 loss, Smith completed 22-of-43 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown.

The next morning, Nolan was vilified by columnists for allowing Smith to play. From then on, Nolan vociferously defended his decision by saying that the medical staff told Smith and Nolan that Smith’s injury probably wouldn’t worsen and that the injury shouldn’t affect his throwing.

Smith and Nolan both stuck to that line, but the real problem then was the swelling and inflammation in Smith’s forearm, possibly brought on by a premature and vigorous rehabilitation after Smith’s arm had atrophied somewhat from weeks in a sling. Smith met with Nolan to express his disappointment in how the strength staff had handled his rehabilitation.

Nolan told Smith not to mention the arm injury and so Smith didn’t, but a few players were joking with Smith about how a ball flew from his grasp while he was trying to throw during the bye week, so reporters knew about forearm injury. Smith was also wearing a wrap on his arm. The injury prevented Smith from making a fist, and one source said he needed a pain injection to play.

Smith muddled through a loss in Atlanta, and then was down right awful in a 24-0 whitewash in Seattle on national television. He completed 12-of-28 passes for 114 yards and was stunningly inaccurate. After the game, he told those around him that his shoulder and arm were hurting and that the injuries were affecting his play. He wanted to come back and help the team but he felt he was hurting the club by continuing to play.

The day after that game, Nolan was asked whether Smith’s injuries were affecting him. Nolan said Smith just had a bad game. But when Smith spoke to the media, he said he was going to rest his injuries and that he didn’t appreciate reading that he had lost confidence or that he was healthy when he was injured.

Then it started getting bizarre. Within the next day or so, Nolan had a meeting with Smith, and by all accounts the meeting went well. But then, during a team meeting, Nolan said that some players had “abandoned ship” and that they had gotten on the rescue boat with the “women and children” players, including Smith, who took it as a clear shot at him.

At the same time, Nolan sounded a conciliatory tone with the media. “Alex has good toughness and is a warrior on the field,” Nolan said that week. “He took all those snaps last year. I’ve never questioned that about him. In the long term, Alex is part of the solution, certainly not part of the problem. He was accurate yesterday in saying there needed to be better communication than there was, and hopefully in the future that is what we will have. … I made a poor decision as far as recognizing what was going on.”

But since then, Nolan has been dismissive of Smith and his injuries and miscommunications abound. Even Sunday, when Fox reported that Smith would have surgery, a team spokesman made a point to address the issue and say that no surgery is planned and that Smith was scheduled to throw on Monday and Tuesday. Then the team backtracked a day later and said Smith would undergo surgery tomorrow in Alabama with Dr. James Andrews.

Today, the team put out quotes from Smith and Nolan about the story that appeared in today’s Mercury News.

Here’s the text of those comments:

“As I was driving away from the facility yesterday after addressing the media, a reporter approached my car and informed me that he was going to write an article where my teammates commented on me in a negative way. It was a brief exchange. I initially reacted out of frustration based on the questions that w

ere being asked, but the article does not reflect how I truly feel.

“This whole season has been frustrating for everyone.

“I can see how an article like this can be very damaging, but I know my relationships with Coach Nolan and my teammates are stronger than that.

“I met with Coach Nolan today and I never intended this to be a distraction for the team or their preparation for the upcoming game.

My focus now is to concentrate on getting healthy so I can return and continue to help my team.”

-Alex Smith

“Alex and I met today and discussed today’s report. I understand how he can be caught off guard. It is a difficult time for Alex. He has not had to deal with an injury that will require surgery before.

The relationship Alex and I have developed over the past three years is stronger than a negative news story.

Our focus is on getting Alex healthy and our team prepared for Cincinnati.”

-Mike Nolan

The two men have made conciliatory remarks before and we’ll see if these stick.

The most distressing part for Smith were the quotes of anonymous players who were unsupportive. But no one wants to weigh in on this situation. Players realize that once you get on Nolan’s bad side there’s no going back, so they’re reluctant to speak out for Smith.

However, guard Justin Smiley, who’s on injured reserve after sustaining a shoulder injury in Atlanta Nov. 4., wanted to support his quarterback.

“First off, I just feel bad for the team, here we’re trying to win games and then something like this happens,” Smiley said. “(Smith is) one of the toughest quarterbacks I’ve ever played with. He was trying to do what was best for the team, not what was best for him.”

Is there precedence for head coach and a quarterback coexisting on the same team? Not only has been done before, the 49ers did it. Nolan’s dad, the late Dick Nolan and John Brodie couldn’t stand one another. They had to communicate through an assistant coach.

One Note: I agree with Twinfan about an item written in the game wrap-up about a fan who died at the stadium Sunday. That tragedy wasn’t given the proper reverence. I apologize for that.